A Very Starkid Birthday
by StarkidWolf
Summary: STARKID The Starkid's have a plan for their Buddy Darren Criss's 25th Birthday. But Darren has been feeling down. Who says sneak surprises are no longer cool? Not if you have Lauren Lopez in charge... Happy B-Day Darren!


A/N: Hi! I just realized today is Darren Everett Criss's B-day, and I just had to write something for the occasion. And tomorrow is Joe Walker's B-day! O.o (I know this really couldn't happen, but still!)

Summary: The starkid's have a plan for their buddy Darren's 26th Birthday. Who says that Classic surprises are no longer cool…

Today was Darren's birthday.

Yipee.

Hurrah.

You think it would have crowded his conscience, and all he could do is wait for the time when he would hit the bar and…

No.

This wasn't at all in his mind.

Or did it even matter to him.

With How to succeed wrapping up, and four new glee scripts sent, Darren was as busy as he normally was, back in L.A.

Pretty Much.

He had always known that Broadway was tough.

But it was leaking every ounce of energy from him.

With his signature Pink sunglasses with Starkid printed on the ends hanging haphazardly on his now unleashed curls, he wore no special outfit and no decoration.

Not even the old Starkid birthday hat he wore last year at the workings of Starship.

Heck, for one hour he even forgot it was his Birthday.

He only remembered when two backstage crew members shouted a quick happy birthday and one of them presented him with a slice of cake from the snack mobile, as he liked to call it.

But the cake was stale, and tasted oddly like something you would find under a kitchen Sink.

But to be polite, he ate it all, said thank you, and went on to find and talk to Nick Jonas.

Now his stomach was queasy.

No, not because of Nick Jonas.

No.

Darren thought Nick was great, but he kept saying he really didn't need advice, since he was more experienced in this department.

And it kinda pissed Darren off, a little.

But he was queasy from the cake.

Yeah, the cake.

But, c'mon, it was his Birthday.

Things couldn't get worse.

Oh, but it can.

Darren sighed as he remembered his old b-days, back in Michigan.

Like the time Lauren dressed up in her Draco outfit to pop up right in his face as he was blowing out the candles, on his 24rd birthday.

Or like last year, in Chicago, when he was serenaded along with Joe with an original song.

Let's just say it ended with hugs and a lot of bouncing.

But now he was here, alone, walking to his building in the middle of New York.

He knew some starkid's were in New York, but all the way on the other side, and the traffic was always terrible.

Heck, this is _New York_.

The Concrete Jungle.

'Cause that is practically what it was.

Concrete.

Pretty Much.

Yeah.

And now, all poor Darren could do is go back to his apartment, have some ice cream, and start on those scripts.

Oh boy.

How Exciting.

So, too sum it up in a Kid-Friendly way, it sucked.

It was crap.

And all sad Darren could do is walk into his apartment building, and feel awful.

The lobby was quiet and blinded in the harsh yellow lamp glow, but Darren's heart sank even lower.

And perhaps, a tear or two slid down his cheek.

So he did the only practical thing.

He went and checked his mail.

But when he saw the contents of his Mailbox, he let out another sigh.

A big thick yellow envelope about the width of the last Harry Potter book.

More scripts.

Of course.

A small wrapped CD.

A Freelance Wales CD.

A b-day present from Chuck.

Of Course.

And a stack of bright happy Birthday cards from multiple relatives, friends and co-workers.

And just the sight of them made him sadder.

The harry Potter themed one nearly caused his heart to break.

God, he missed them.

Of Course.

He just wanted to go back, too convincing Joe Moses that he doesn't have a twin brother.

To watch Lauren slap Joe Walker twice, and say "You are _not_ permitted to Touch!" As Joe tried to flirt.

To go back to the days when he was just a regular guy.

Darren Everett Criss.

Guitar Player.

Future Actor and Musician.

But he didn't expect the future to come so fast.

Darren sighed as he trudged up the 13 flights to his apartment.

The elevator was down again.

Great.

He finally made it to his Apartment.

He turned the key, and trudged inside.

He threw his messenger bag across the room where it came to rest on the arm chair.

He collapsed onto his couch, pulled out a schedule from How To Succeed, and retrieved a script from the package.

He opened the cover, and began scanning for his lines.

He was in the first scene.

Awesome.

He highlighted his lines, and went back to count them.

58.

58 stupid lines, in the first 10 minutes.

Awesome.

As he scanned the next scene, he surprisingly didn't notice the dark shapes landing on his Balcony.

Nor did he hear the multiple whispers about a certain Brian being too loud.

He didn't even see them hide so stupidly, that it might have even earned a "That's Absurd!", if Joe Mo was here.

No, not even then.

He only looked up from the 70 paged scripts when he heard the doorbell go.

And that's when the so called spies went into action.

The second Darren disappeared around the corner, the supposed leader of the bunch, a girl even smaller than Darren, who called his own body hobbit-sized, took out a small paperclip.

Not 30 seconds later after the whisperings that doubted this plan's victory died down, the balcony door clicked open.

And the assassins slinked into the apartment.

And when I say 'Slinked', I mean it literally.

They filled the room, hiding.

Darren opened the door to see the building's delivery man with a rather small package.

Really Small.

Tiny.

"Mr. Criss, this just arrived for you."

"Thanks Man."

"Don't sweat it."

The door shut and the mustached Delivery Man, skipped down through the hallway.

Darren, was of course wondering what was in this tiny package, while still wallowing in quite sad self-pity.

He stood, facing the door, back to the living room and pulled it open.

And a tiny slip of paper and a party blower fell to the floor.

Darren leaned over, picked them up and read the slip.

In close jumbled up print in a bright blue pen that he faintly recognized, these words stood.

'_Hiya Buddy. Turn around_.'

So, rather confused and slightly frightened, he turned around.

And his jaw dropped.

For standing in front of him, all with party blowers, were the Starkids.

Lauren, Joe, Joe Mo, Joey, Dylan, Brian H, Brian R, Matt and Nick, Jamie, AJ, and many more.

And in unison, they lifted their blowers to their mouths, (Joe with a Megaphone) and yelled, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARREN!"

Darren couldn't respond.

They were all here.

And they had all come, for him.

Lauren had her Taz bandana on, Joey was wearing his Blue head-band, and Jamie had on the same obnoxious bright yellow shoes she wore in AVPM as Ginny.

And they all were wearing those big lopsided smiles he had known for 4 years.

The Starkids had returned.

The door flung open, and a huge Pink sunglass shaped cake with Starkid written in icing was wheeled into the room.

As his friends came around him hugging and laughing, Darren's heart picked it's self-up, shook all the trouble off, and rose back into its normal spot, and it swelled with pride.

Two hours later, the Starkids were scattered all over the room, Lauren hanging upside down of the back of the couch, Joe Walker splayed out on the ground, and a laptop set up where all the Starkids unable to attend were currently in Video Chat, to join the reunion.

As he listened to their wacky stories of how the heard and made it there, (I hitchhiked across Manhattan! I rode a bus all the way from Chicago here!) Close fan calls, (a 60 year old lady nearly recognized me!) and many encores of old Starkid hits, Darren felt considerably better.

After 10 glasses of Apple Juice, 2 slices of cake, which stopped the queasy feeling, calling the security guard not to worry when he saw 20 people scaling the fire escapes, and Jokes, the Starkid were all rather tired.

Darren had his arms wrapped around Jamie and Lauren, as gift after gift was shoved in his face, Darren began nodding off.

After saying goodnight, and showing everyone out, (with the exception of a few who had nowhere to go, (Joey, Joe and Brian) Darren lay back in his bed and drifted off to sleep, a smile on his face.

This was the best b-day ever.

A/N: There you have it! My longest chapter ever. I wish you will all join me in saying, Happy B-day Darren Freaking Criss! ;-)


End file.
